


Catalyst

by insixeighttime (alianne)



Category: The Dead Isle - Sam Starbuck
Genre: Gen, alternate POV, canonized
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-01
Updated: 2008-12-01
Packaged: 2017-11-22 01:59:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alianne/pseuds/insixeighttime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clare's reveal from an outsiders view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catalyst

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at http://theoriginalsam.livejournal.com/22117.html?thread=358501#t358501

Little Dina crept carefully along the side of the road. The White people had entranced her since they had arrived on the Res. They were from England, they were from a place where people could Create without hiding it, without first looking everywhere to make sure no one saw. She tried to watch them but they entered Saturday’s workhouse and Dina knew she couldn't follow them there. Dina was one of the special ones who had been inside that house before – not that she had fond memories of it. Sitting and standing and running, being told to Create and Create again, tested until she was tired and crying and the tools would not come because she didn’t know how, because she didn't have the training.

Dina hid behind a stack of crates and sat down to wait for the people to come out. She held her hands out and concentrated, and there was a shiny ball in her lap. She tossed it from hand to hand, rolling it in her lap. And then she put it behind her back, because footsteps were coming.

The door opened, and Little Dina stood up and cautiously peeked over the crates. Saturday was leading the way, followed by the white girl and white boy who was holding hands with the darker skinned girl. The boy looked agitated.

"...it's just that there's a time and a place, isn't there?", he said.

The girl kept walking as she replied, "And this is it."

Then the old man walked out and Dina followed softly. She couldn’t let them see her so she walked behind and out of earshot. They looked like they were going to the laundry-place, so Dina skipped off the path and ran around back. The fence was high, but they were on the other side and she thought hard, and she Created a ladder for the first time. Dina was proud of this – normally you didn’t Create ladders until you were ten - but they were on the other side of the wall and her curiosity had won. She pushed the ladder to the wall and carefully climbed up it. Life on the Res had taught never to completely trust something the first time it was Created, but this was more important, so she climbed up anyway. It held.

Little Dina slowly raised herself up over the wall, holding onto the top of the wall tightly as she watched. The Elders were laughing at something, not nicely-laughing.

The white boy took a step towards them, angry now as he said, "Don't laugh at her!"

You never talked to the Elders like that. Never. Dina was scared as they stopped laughing and turned their eyes to him. After what seemed to her an eternity one of the harshest Elder spoke, this time to the girl.

"You're not a Tribal, girl," he said, and Dina was even more scared, because he had sounded like that first time she had Created. That voice meant separation and exile and restrictions and bad things, and Little Dina held onto the wall even more tightly as her ladder shook, and then the girl spoke, and she Changed, and it was a good thing Dina was holding on tight, because she was so shocked her ladder vanished right out from under her.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a ficlet that holds a dear place in my heart because it was written before _Dead Isle_ was finished and immediately after Sam wrote the reveal. Technically this is the first place Dina appears in the DI world, even though she didn't become a canonical character until a few chapters later.
> 
> So basically, extribulim process win all around.


End file.
